Vanessa Woods, Author of the Genius of Dogs answered this month’s question-

Barking is one of the reasons humans adopted dogs for the long haul. For our ancestors, barking would have been an invaluable early warning system against intruders. However, excessive barking in the modern world can be annoying, leading to frustration in sleepless neighbors and helpless owners.
Researchers have assessed several different methods for controlling barking, some of which were more effective than others.

Citronella spray collar
These collars work by releasing a cloud of citronella spray whenever the dog barks. Research has shown that this method was most effective when the collar was worn intermittently (e.g. every other day for 30 minutes), rather than continuously. This is surprising, since most would think it would have worked best if it sprayed the dog every time it barked.
However, the study also showed that collar did not stop dogs from barking all together. The dogs in the study slowly habituated to the collar, with barking levels increasing over time. Furthermore, the week after the dogs stopped wearing the collar the barking rate increased back to levels slightly below the original amount.

Training
Another, more effective technique is to train dogs not to bark by addressing the context in which barking occurs. Contexts can vary among being home alone, or seeing another dog or person outside, or even seeing another dog on TV. One of the most commonly reported contexts is when a guest rings the doorbell or knocks on the door. Positively reinforcing the dog to go to their bed, or a rug, or another spot away from the door and lie there for one minute on command, was shown to reduce barking by up to 90%!

Although barking may have been beneficial when dogs and humans first began living together, things have changed in the past 10,000 years. Whatever the context, a good trainer can help you decrease the amount of barking in a positive and effective manner. Less barking can mean a more peaceful and happy house, as well as more peaceful and happy neighbors!

Vanessa Woods, Author of the Genius of Dogs answered this month’s question-

Barking is one of the reasons humans adopted dogs for the long haul. For our ancestors, barking would have been an invaluable early warning system against intruders. However, excessive barking in the modern world can be annoying, leading to frustration in sleepless neighbors and helpless owners.
Researchers have assessed several different methods for controlling barking, some of which were more effective than others.

Citronella spray collar
These collars work by releasing a cloud of citronella spray whenever the dog barks. Research has shown that this method was most effective when the collar was worn intermittently (e.g. every other day for 30 minutes), rather than continuously. This is surprising, since most would think it would have worked best if it sprayed the dog every time it barked.
However, the study also showed that collar did not stop dogs from…

Dear Olivia,
Thank very much for your inquiry, which touches on a crucial topic in the area of Animal Cognition.

There is no question that dogs remember several aspects of their daily lives including things like the places where they go (e.g., the park) and the routes that they take to get there (e.g., by the lake rather than across the woods), the activities that they engage in (e.g., playing catch), the objects that they use for those activities (e.g., Frisbee) as well as the people that share those activities with them. Without memory not only those activities would be vastly impaired, but even some more basic things like recognizing familiar smells and people or learning new things would be impossible for dogs.

Memory plays such a crucial role in our mental lives as well as those of our furry best friends that it should not come as a surprise that memory was one of the first aspects of animal cognition that was investigated by scientists at the beginning of the 20th century. One hundred years of research have taught us much about animal memory including what types of memory exist, how long they last, where they are stored, and what can enhance them or impair them. However, there is still much that we do not know about animal memories, and for some species such as dogs, we know very, very little since they are extremely under-studied from a scientific point of view. Although a bit disappointing from my perspective because I would like to know much more about dog memory, this state of affairs presents dog owners with a terrific opportunity to potentially contribute to advancing our scientific knowledge in this area by reporting their dogs’ performance in controlled tests.

Indeed, a controlled test is precisely what Olivia would need to do if you wanted to know what triggers your dog’s responses when you return home after a long period away. You have already taken an important step in solving this mystery because you have already proposed two hypotheses that could explain your dog’s reaction: 1) your mere presence 2) your family reaction to your presence. Now one would need to test which one explains your dog’s reaction better. One of the simplest ways of doing this would be to compare your dog’s reaction in two different situations: 1) You appear without any of your family members around 2) You appear in the presence of your family. You would then measure several behaviours including the appearance of tail-wagging,
approach/avoidance, growling/barking, and any other behaviours that you deem appropriate. Additionally, you could compare the responses in those two situations with the situation in which a stranger appears.

Although in scientific circles it is undisputed that animals possess memories, currently, there is an intense debate in the field of comparative cognition about which types of memories are present in animals. Some scientists argue that some animals, just like humans, possess so-called episodic or autobiographical memories – a type of memory that serves us to recall specific events of our personal history, e.g., the day that you got your first bicycle. If you think about it, you can probably recall, who was there, where the event took place and when it happened – all this information comes bundled together so that you are capable of re-experiencing the whole episode. Other scientists argue that the memories that have been reported in nonhuman animals lack some of these aspects and more importantly, they are not tied together – they are not autobiographical in nature. If you want to know more about dog memory, or more generally about animal memory, the current debates in the field, and the new research directions please check the following sources:

Dear Olivia,
Thank very much for your inquiry, which touches on a crucial topic in the area of Animal Cognition.

There is no question that dogs remember several aspects of their daily lives including things like the places where they go (e.g., the park) and the routes that they take to get there (e.g., by the lake rather than across the woods), the activities that they engage in (e.g., playing catch), the objects that they use for those activities (e.g., Frisbee) as well as the people that share those activities with them. Without memory not only those activities would be vastly impaired, but even some more basic things like recognizing familiar smells and people or learning new things would be impossible for dogs.

Memory plays such a crucial role in our mental lives as well as those of our furry best friends that it…